282 Transactions of the South African Philosoj^hical Society. 



succulents, viz., Mesemhrianthemnm simulans, Marloth. It has 

 usually only two leaves about the size of a hen's egg, but which, in 

 the texture of their surface and their rusty colour, resemble tho- 

 rough, ferruginous stones among which it grows very closely. 



The other species I discovered recently near Kimberley, and as 

 this is the most remarkable instance of the kind, I am exhibiting 

 some of the plants and the limestone pebbles among which it 

 was found. You will notice that the leaves of the plant are covered 

 with white and brownish tubercles, and that they are closely set into 

 a compact rosette ; hence nothing but this rough surface is visible 

 when the plant is in the ground. As the locality is closely covered 

 with pebbles and fragments of greyish limestone, over which here= 

 and there a little red sand has been blown, the similarity between 

 the plants and theh^ surroundings is so extraordinary that no artist, 

 could have produced a more perfect harmony of the two. 



I frankly admit that I would have walked over them if the plants- 

 had not been in flower, although my eyes were on the ground 

 searching for something else. 



From its similarity to the limestone pebbles I have named the 

 plant Mesemhrianthemum calcareum. Its full diagnosis, with figure, 

 has been included in the paper dealing with the other new species,, 

 and will be found on page 45 of this volume. 



